| Even seemingly entrenched supply chains for consumer staples can’t withstand market forces. Moves by big grocers into the milk bottling business are threatening some of the biggest operators in the $40 billion U.S. milk industry, the WSJ’s Jacob Bunge and Jaewon Kang report, as Americans’ thirst for cheap milk triggers big changes in business from farms to grocery shelves. Both Dean Foods Co., which until last year was the largest U.S. milk processor by sales, and rival Borden Dairy Co. were sold this year after filing for bankruptcy in November and January. And some 3,300 dairy-cow herds disappeared in 2019, following low milk prices, troubled exports and processing-plant closures across the country. Supermarket chains know that shoppers who come for a jug of milk will buy other items, however, changing cost calculations and leading several chains, to cut out the middlemen with their own milk-bottling plants. |
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Operations and Supply Chain Management 